Getting started with blitz.cloud

To get started, create a free account at dashboard.blitz.cloud, confirm your email address, claim a name like lena.blitz.cloud, and click "Host something new". Your first app can be online a few minutes later. There is no credit card step and no waiting list.

Create an account

Sign up with an email address and a password of at least 10 characters, or with GitHub or Google. If you use email, we send a confirmation link. You can look around before you click it, but creating apps and databases only works once the address is confirmed.

Throwaway mailbox providers are turned away at signup. That's one of the ways we keep a free platform usable for the people on it.

Claim your address

The first thing the dashboard asks for is your address. It becomes <name>.blitz.cloud, and every app you host lives under it.

• 3 to 30 characters: lowercase letters, digits and hyphens
• no hyphen at the start or end, and no two hyphens in a row
• some names are reserved (platform words, brand names and a few you can guess)

The field checks availability while you type. You can rename the address later, but only once every 14 days. The details are in addresses and HTTPS.

Connect GitHub, or skip it

Next the onboarding offers to connect GitHub. If you keep code there, connect it: we can then build your projects, private ones included, and put a new version online every time you push. At GitHub you choose which repositories blitz.cloud may read. No code on GitHub? Click "Skip for now". You can connect later from Settings, and public projects build from a pasted link without connecting at all. More in deploy a GitHub project.

Put your first app online

Click "Host something new" in the dashboard. You get three choices:

1. A ready-made app from the App Store, such as Vaultwarden, Ghost or Uptime Kuma.
2. My own code: a project from GitHub, picked from your list once GitHub is connected, or any public repository by its link.
3. An app from Docker Hub: a public Docker image from Docker Hub or another public registry.

Next you pick a short name for the app. It becomes a subdomain of your address, so uptime turns into uptime.lena.blitz.cloud. One app can also sit on your main address itself.

Then click "Put it online" ("Build it and put it online" for your own code). The progress list reports what the cluster is actually doing, step by step. When it's done you get a working HTTPS link.

What to read next

• Deploy a Docker image if you have your own image
• Deploy a GitHub project if your code is on GitHub
• Databases if your app needs PostgreSQL, MariaDB or Redis
• Limits to see how many apps fit in the free plan
• App status and logs if something doesn't come online